…accuse Ambassador of forgery, replacing Nigerian workers with foreigners
Some staff of the Nigerian Embassy in Madrid, Spain have protested against the alleged sacking of 11 of them, their replacement with foreigners and the reduction of the salaries of the remaining workers by the Ambassador, Mr Ademola Seriki.
The protesting staff, who urged President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly to immediately recall Seriki, also accused the ambassador of forgery.
The aggrieved Nigerian Embassy staff, were seen in a video obtained by First News carrying placards with various inscriptions and chanting “Seriki Must go!”, “All we are saying, give us justice” and “Nigerian Ambassador to Spain must go, he’s a bully, he’s a forger, he must go!” during the protest held in front of the Plaza Castilla High Court, in the Centre of Madrid in Spain.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards carried by the protesting Nigerian Embassy staff also include, “Seriki must go, he’s destroying Nigeria’s Embassy in Spain,” “Ambassador Ademola Seriki must be recalled to save Nigeria from more disgrace in Spain,” “Seriki is a disgrace to democracy, he’s not fit to represent Nigeria in Spain,” “Save our soul” among others.
The protesting Embassy staff claimed that they decided to take their grievances to the premises of the High Court in Madrid, Spain, where a case of falsification of their documents had been brought before the Magistrate against the Nigerian Ambassador in the country.
According to a voice in the background of the protest video, “We are here because of the corruption, forgery and some wicked acts of our Ambassador, Ademola Seriki, who came suddenly and changed the protocol of the Embassy by reducing the salary, by forging papers and sacking some workers that have been here for long and replacing them with foreigners. This is total injustice!
“He (Seriki) sacked 11 workers without paying them. This is total injustice. Ambassador Seriki is a bully. We want the public to hear that our Ambassador who is representing the government is a forger, a bully, he conspired with foreigners to dupe and falsify our identities and presented it on our behalf and this is why our supporters are here to shout.
“Let our President, Muhammadu Buhari listen and hear that our Ambassador here is a forger, who has been bullying people. This is just the beginning of the action, we hope to come and do more. Nigerian Embassy in Spain should be expecting people.
“He (Seriki) conspired with a Spanish lawyer to falsify our documents. That is why we are gathered here today to denounce him and his fake lawyer. Let Nigerian government save our soul in Spain before the country’s name is further damaged.
“We don’t need him here anymore in Spain. Ambassador Ademola Seriki must be recalled and his fake lawyer and administrators must be withdrawn. Head of Nigerian Mission must be recalled.
“Let the entire world hear us today that Nigerian government has sent an Ambassador who is falsifying documents because of his Senatorial ambition; he has sacked all Nigerians and replaced them with foreigners. He sacked people without paying them, it’s injustice! We need justice here, we need our souls to be saved.”
Efforts by our correspondent to ascertain the situation of things at the Nigerian Embassy in Spain proved abortive. Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja reached out to also declined to comment on the matter.